This invention relates generally to the field of paper handling, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for automatically delivering discrete pieces of stationery from a stacked supply to a printing machine, such as a typewriter, and then transporting printed pieces of the stationary from the printing machine back to the stacked supply.
Methods and apparatus for serially feeding discrete pieces of stationery to a machine are known in the art. In addition to the conventional manual feeding method, apparatus are known which semi-automatically feed envelopes to typewriters from a stacked supply. U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,707,080 and U.S. Pat. No. 2,257,174 are illustrative of such prior art semi-automatic envelope feeding apparatus. In both of these apparatus the operator of the typewriter must take some affirmative action such as rotating the typewriter platen or also operating a lever in order to advance envelopes to the typewriter.
The advent of programmable printing machines such as automatic typewriters has been very popular among businesses and organizations which do mass mailings. Such organizations and businesses desire to send the same letter to each of a large number of recipients. However, these organizations want their letters and envelopes to be individually typed rather than being printed, xeroxed, or similarly duplicated so that each letter will have a "personalized" appearance. If these "personalized" letters and envelopes were to be typed by individual typists rather than automatically, the costs would be prohibitive. When an automatic typewriter is employed, once programmed, it may be left unattended to rapidly type error-free "personalized" letters and envelopes as desired at substantial savings of labor.
The result of this popularity of automatic programmable typewriters has been the creation of a need for more rapid methods and means of feeding stationery to such typewriters with an absolute minimum amount of human interposition. One answer has been the use of continuous form stationery which comprises an elongate web either comprising or supporting the stationery. Continuous form envelopes in one popular arrangement comprise a plurality of individual envelopes generally mounted in spaced relationship and aligned on an elongate web. The web may be passed through the automatic typewriter and positioned around the typewriter platen so that envelopes on the web are addressed as they are conveyed over the platen with the web. Such continuous form envelopes have some decided disadvantages. As contrasted with conventional envelopes of a similar size, this arrangement of continuous form envelopes today costs approximately five times as much. Additionally, the arrangement requires that the envelopes be disposed in spaced-apart relation along the web. This spacing of the envelopes along the web is translatable into the machine time involved in rotating the platen to advance the web from one envelope to the next adjacent one. Continuous form envelopes have been developed where the individual envelopes have been overlapped to some extent. Such overlapping permits the automatic typewriter to finish the bottom line on one envelope and then start typing the first line of the next succeeding envelope on the web, while requiring a smaller platen advance than required with the popular continuous form envelopes noted above. The overlapping, continuous form envelopes have not been well received by mass mailers. While there is a savings in machine operation time in the use of such overlapping continuous form envelopes, the manner in which such envelopes have been mounted has necessitated that an unattractive, ragged appearance be produced when such envelopes were removed from their supporting web. This ragged appearance detracts from the "personalized" letter.